When towing a trailer (within weight limits) up long steep hills with my 1997 F150, the truck seems to delay downshifting, and on at least two occasions I smelled a plastic-type smell. The temperature gaige never went up and the smell disappeared soon after reaching the top of the hill. I just had all of the fluids, air filter, and oil filter replaced. What's happening?

 

Thread moved to the 1997 - 2003 F150 truck thread...

Welcome to FTE!

 

The trany probably puked some fluid when it got hot. The trans will overheat without the engine temp rising enough to show on the stock dash gauge. If you are going to tow get some form of gauge for monitoring the trany temp specifically. BTW welcome.

 

Also, fluid puking indicated the fluid has overheated and should be changed. Old fluid does not dissipate heat as well as new fluid. The fluid should be changed at least once every 30,000 miles.

 

Thanks for the advice. It has been about 30,000 miles since I had the transmission serviced. Also, we are at high altitude (9,000-10,000 feet), with very steep hills. Sounds like it's time to have the transmission serviced.

 

A transmission fluid cooler also couldn't hurt you, I don't think. If you get one, the higher GVW rating the cooler has, the better. I had an Autometer Cobalt Transmission Temperature gauge, and a cooler rated at 30000+ GVW from Becool. These were both on a '93 Lightning I bought in '03 with something like 124176 miles on it. Aside from the solenoid pack going out (don't think that was the fault of the fluid, but not sure), I had no problems out of the E4OD.